DBT Star College

DBT STAR COLLEGE SCHEME

“Star College Scheme” has been initiated by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt of India to support colleges and university departments offering undergraduate education to improve science teaching. The programme aims to improve the skills of teachers by organising faculty training, improved curriculum and emphasis on practical training to students by providing access to specialised infrastructure and consumables. In 2018, DBT under Star College Scheme has sanctioned a sum of Rs 1.04 crores for three years for strengthening of Life Science and Biotechnology Education and Training at undergraduate level for five departments of our college i.e. Botany, Zoology, Chemistry, Electronics and Mathematics.

List of Equipments procurred under DBT Star College Program (April 2018 - March 2019)

A lecture-cum-presentation on ‘Safe Handling of Glassware in Laboratory’ was organized on 9th January, 2018. Mr. Uma Shankar currently serving as the Sales Manager, BOROSIL (the laboratory glassware and equipment manufacturer) was invited for the event. Mr. Umashankar is an ex-professor of chemistry at Wilson College, Mumbai. He began the presentation with a basic introduction of the glassware commonly used in the laboratory. Thereafter, he focused on the different types of glass based on their properties, the process of manufacturing Borosillicate glass, calibration of glassware, pipetting and titration techniques & cleaning and drying of glassware. At the end of the presentation, he also discussed the various “Do's and Dont's” for safely working in the laboratory. To generate interest amongst the students, a documentary was also screened wherein the manufacturing of round bottom flasks by manual blowing was shown. The program was followed by an interactive session between the students and speaker where the manufacturing of different types of laboratory glasses and safety guidelines were discussed. 69 students of B.Sc (H) Zoology and B.Sc (P) Life Sciences attended the presentation.

An industry-academia interaction program was organised on January 9, 2018 under the aegis of DBT-Star College Scheme for presentation cum demonstration of safe handling, manufacturing process of Borosilicate glass, Calibration of glassware, do's and don’ts in laboratory and proper uses of glassware in laboratory by experts from “BOROSIL” company.

Hands-on-Workshop on the Introduction and Applications of UV-Visible Absorption Spectroscopy Organized by Department of Chemistry, DDUC (Under the aegis of DBT Star College Scheme) on February 20, 2018

Programme Schedule

A Hands-on-Workshop on the Introduction and Applications of UV-Visible Absorption Spectroscopy was organized by the Department of Chemistry, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College (University of Delhi) under the aegis of DBT Star College Scheme on February 20, 2018. It constituted of a key note lecture on the topic “UV-Visible Absorption Spectroscopy” by Dr. Vinod Kumar, guest speaker and resource person for the day. The lecture was followed by a Hands-on-session in which students from various science courses of the college participated.

Summary of the Event

The event started with brief introduction of DBT Star College Scheme by Dr. S. K. Garg, Principal. After that, Dr. Vinod enlightened the audience with the keynote lecture on UV-Visible Spectroscopy. Lecture was attended by a total number of 85 students and 13 faculty members of the college. The main key points of the lecture were:-

The lecture was concluded with a demonstration by Dr. Vinod Kumar using a portable VISIBLE spectrophotometer. He conducted an analysis using solutions of different concentrations of potassium permanganate and showed their respective spectra’s.

After the lecture, the Hands-on-Workshop was conducted in the chemistry research lab of the Department in which a total of 32 students participated. It was conducted in batches of five students each. Resource persons Dr. Jyoti, Dr. Nityanand Agasti, Dr. Reema Chhabra and Dr. Chetna Angrish conducted this workshop. The participants acquired the skills of using a Spectrophotometer and understood its principle and its working. The experiment was conducted by all the students with the help of different samples and the data was recorded by the experimentalists. The workshop was concluded with a valedictory ceremony.

National Science Day 2018

A Poster titled “Synthetic Seeds: A promising method to conserve endangered plant species” by Priya Singh Kushwaha and Kritika Bahuguna, both of B.Sc. (H) Botany 1st year, (prepared under the aegis of DBT Star College Scheme) was selected for National Science Day 2018 celebration organized by ‘Indian National Science Academy’, Delhi, ‘Indian Academy of Sciences’, Bengaluru and the University of Delhi on February 28, 2018 at INSA, Delhi. Two student projects (prepared under the aegis of DBT Star College Scheme) were selected for National Science Day 2018 celebration organized by ‘Indian National Science Academy’, Delhi, ‘Indian Academy of Sciences’, Bengaluru and the University of Delhi on February 28, 2018 at INSA, Delhi.

Sneha Bisht, Abhay Verma of B.Sc (Hons.) Zoology II year and Rohan Bahl, B.Sc (Hons.) Zoology I year were selected for a project presentation (prepared under the aegis of DBT Star College Scheme) on “Effects of different acoustic treatments on growth & biosynthetic capabilities of unicellular & multicellular forms” in National Science Day 2018 celebration organized by ‘Indian National Science Academy’, Delhi, ‘Indian Academy of Sciences’, Bengaluru and the University of Delhi on February 28, 2018 at INSA, Delhi.

Under the aegis of DBT Star College Scheme, Deepika Pawar and Kavita of B.Sc (Hons.) Zoology II year participated and won 1st prize in the debate competition on “Scientific Issues for Development of a Nation” in National Science Day 2018 celebration organized by ‘Indian National Science Academy’, Delhi, ‘Indian Academy of Sciences’, Bengaluru and the University of Delhi on February 28, 2018 at INSA, Delhi.

March 2018

An Industrial Visit to Yakult Danone India Pvt. Ltd., Sonepat, Haryana was organized under the aegis DBT Star College Scheme on March 10, 2018. Students of B.Sc (Hons.) Electronics Semester II, IV and VI along with six faculty members visited the plant and had an exposure to the automation of the plant. Thirty eight students of B.Sc (Hons.) Zoology Semester IV and VI and B.Sc (P) Life Sciences Semester VI and six teaching and non-teaching faculty visited the factory.

A total of 62 Students from B.Sc. Chemistry Hons and B.Sc. Physical Sciences with Chemistry from all the years 1st, 2nd and 3rd. The students were accompanied by teachers of Department of Chemistry. Yakult is a probiotic dairy product made by fermenting a mixture of skimmed milk with a special strain of the bacterium Lactobacillus casei Shirota (LcS). LcS was discovered by Dr.Minoru Shirota, a Japanese scientist in 1930. A single bottle of Yakult has 6.5 Billion LcS. Yakult is a probiotic drink which is maily used for digestion and Its production comprise of many complex processes i.e. The first area was the Seed room where skimmed milk powder, sugar, glucose in hot water are allowed to ferment at 37degees for 3- 4 days with an innoculum of LcS bacteria in sterile conditions which is tested and given OK tag for further proceedings. Next was the Culture Mixing Room where the fermented seed is given its homogeneous liquid form by adding sugar syrup, chilled water and other ingredients in Blending tanks. Next was the laboratory were all the materials before and after processing are approved by more than 100 safety tests. Next the Bottling and Filling area where all processes like production of bottles, labelling, filling ,capping and packaging are automated. Each batch of Yakult is monitored for 24 hours before it is dispatched for sale. The visit was then followed by a lecture by the members of Yakult family about its various uses and benefits to human body. After the presentation free samples of their probiotics were distributed among the students. The taste was sweet and tasty inspite of its medical subject. Students and Teachers enjoyed the visit and learnt various things about how productions at such a large scale happen and how the bacterias such as LcS are used for digestion purposes.

Faculty Development Program on Biostatistics: Theoretical and Practical Aspects (14.03.2018 – 18.03.2018)

A five day Faculty Development Program on Biostatistics was organized by Department of Mathematics and Department of Botany from 14th April to 18th April 2018 under the aegis of DBT Star College Scheme. A total of 40 candidates participated in this program including teachers and research scholars from different colleges of University of Delhi and other universities like Banaras Hindu University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Kurukshetra University, GGSIP University, Sharda University, Lucknow University, National Institute of Immunology, Delhi Technological University, Govt. College for Women. A total of 10 candidates from Mathematics, 13 from Botany, 5 from Environmental Sciences, 5 from Statistics, 3 from Zoology, 2 from Immunology, 1 from IUCN and 1 from NGO have participated in the program.

A Science Academies’ Lecture Workshop entitled “Role of Epigenetics in Health and Diseases” was organized from April 5-6, 2018 under the aegis DBT Star College Scheme.

Prof. Madan Mohan Chaturvedi convened the event and Dr. Sudhir Verma served as the coordinator. The event included lecture sessions by the following eminent scientists and fellows of the Science Academies:

Prof. Madan Mohan Chaturvedi, Department of Zoology, University of Delhi

Prof. Pramod C. Rath, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Prof. Shantanu Chowdhury, Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology

Dr. Beena Pillai, Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology

Academic Excursion to The Energy And Resources Institute (TERI)

Gururgram, Haryana (13th April, 2018) Under DBT Star College Scheme

Department of Botany had organised a one day academic excursion to The Energy And Resource Institute (TERI), Gual Pahari, Gurugram on 13th April, 2018. A total of 76 Students from B.Sc.(H) Botany and B.Sc. Life Sciences, 5 Teachers and 2 Non-teaching staff visited the place. Lush Green Campus of TERI is beautifully designed, green forested area with some cutting edge research activities and facilities as well as Self Sustainable Green RETREAT close to mother nature.This RETREAT training complex uses no power from the Grid and is a unique model of Solar Energy, Waste and Water resource - use efficiency producing no waste, with all the waste water and sewage being treated organically by the plants roots techniques specially chosen for the purpose, Heating and cooling with EAT tunnels technology ,tour to Herbal / Medicinal Garden and Vermi Composting unit. The visit gave an opportunity to the students to see all the state of the art technologies involved to provide sustainable environment and development, but most importantly, the students were exposed in an atmosphere where the air is clear, the sky is blue and there is lush greenery all around.

Department of Electronics, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College (University of Delhi) Organized Three Days Workshop on Cyber Security Under the Aegis of DBT Star College Scheme during April 13-15, 2018 at ICT Centre, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College

Theme of the Workshop - India is the global hub of IT and business process outsourcing. With exports of USD 53 billion in software and services and the industry projected to generate revenues of about USD 73 billion in the current year, this sector is expected to grow to the level of USD 225 billion by the year 2020. But, for this certain revolutionary steps are critically required. These include development of IT & Communication infrastructure and the education system that produces skilled manpower who can be readily deployed. Besides, to establish a strong data protection culture and legal regime in the country, India needs to develop global best practices of data security and privacy protection and encourage the companies to implement the same. This is because the threat landscape is changing, new technologies give rise to newer vulnerabilities in the applications and are exploited by criminals to commit cyber crimes. Cyber crimes, therefore, need to be given an effective response. We need to train not only our law enforcement agencies including police, public prosecutors and judiciary, but also to create awareness on cyber security and cyber crimes among the people at large. The proposed three day workshop on cyber security is a small step towards this distant objective. The faculty / trainers engaged for this workshop are thorough professionals of their domain and are experts both in licensed and open source software used for this purpose. The workshop intends to give a comprehensive information about the issues and tools and techniques to resolve them through practical / hands on training. We sincerely hope that the participants shall be deeply benefited by undergoing this specialized training.

Type of attacks handled best by Firewall: Denial of Service (DoS), Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS); Latest trends in firewall design, Examples of contemporary firewall and data sheets, third generation firewalls, IPV6 based design

Educational Visit to Department of Biophysics, University of Delhi South Campus On 23.04.2018

The Department of Mathematics of DDUC took the students for Educational visit to Biomathematics Lab to attend workshop on mathematical Biology organized by Biomathematics Forum, Department of Biophysics and Department of Mathematics, University of Delhi, South Campus on 23rd April 2018. A total of 34 students with 4 teaching staff visited the place.

About the workshop- One day workshop on Mathematical Biology was an orientation program for the Undergraduate students.

Aim of the workshop- To provide students an overview of how mathematics can be linked and applied to biology, e.g. application of linear and nonlinear differential equations in biology, probabilistic/stochastic modelling of biological phenomena. The idea was to motivate students to pursue career in mathematical biology and related fields. The workshop consisted of lectures and hands on tutorials on MATLAB. In tutorials students were given small mathematical problems related to biology how mathematics makes the complicated biological problems to understand in an easy way. Prof. Subhendu Ghosh and Prof. Patrick Das Gupta delivered their talks on understanding biology through mathematics.

May 2018

Workshop on Ionic Equilibrium through Experiment (A three day outreach activity for school students) organized by Department of Chemistry & Science Foundation, DDUC (Under the aegis of DBT Star College Scheme) during May 14-16, 2018

A three day workshop on 'Ionic Equilibrium through Experiment' was held under the DBT star college outreach program by the Department of Chemistry, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College between 14th to 16th May 2018. Twenty seven students of class eleven from Bal Bharti Public School, Dwarka participated in the workshop. The workshop involved a transacting the concepts through learning by doing, the Discovery Approach. The pedagogy involved was a new one different from the conventional method of teaching Science. The event started with a brief introduction about the necessity of outreach activity by Dr. S. K. Garg, Principal, DDU College. He also apprised students about the DBT star college scheme. Further, students were divided into six groups; they were made to do a series of experiments according to a scheme that has been evolved to cover the concepts of this important topic of Chemistry. At various stages as per the scheme, the results were compiled on the board, collectively discussed and analysed to arrive at the concepts. The concepts covered were 1) Classification of substance as electrolytes and non-electrolytes using conductance as tool, 2) Ionisation, 3) Equivalence in Chemistry, 4) pH of water, acids, bases and change in pH on dilution using pH paper, universal indicator and pH meter, 5) Ionic product of water, 6) Common ion effect, 7) Strong and weak electrolytes through conductance, titration and pH measurements, 8) Dissociation constant of weak acid through pH measurements. Skills taught were weighing, making standard solution, titration and use of pH meter. Students worked very enthusiastically, not just in doing the experiments, but participating in the discussion to understand the concepts. As a result so many new concepts could be covered in a very short duration.

Two Days Hands-on Workshop on Molecular Techniques Under the aegis of DBT Star College Scheme organized during 23-24th May, 2018

The Department of Botany under the aegis of DBT STAR COLLEGE SCHEME organized Two days ‘Hands-on workshop on Molecular techniques’ for the undergraduate students of our college on 23-24th May, 2018. The program aimed at providing hands on training of molecular biology techniques viz. DNA isolation, PCR technique and gel electrophoresis to the students. In these two days, a batch of 21 students isolated DNA by spooling method, amplified DNA by putting polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in thermocycler, prepared agarose gel, loaded the PCR amplified products onto the gel, ran the gel and finally visualized the amplicons using transilluminator. These techniques have wide applications in genetic fingerprinting, detection and diagnosis of genetic and infectious diseases, personalized medicines etc. Thus hands on experience of these techniques will give the participants a breakthrough in their research endeavors.

Fifteen Days Hands-on Workshop on “Trends for Algorithmic Experimentation and Prototyping” organized by Department of Electroinics under the Aegis of DBT Star College Scheme

Department of Electronics, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College (University of Delhi) organized 15 days’ hands on workshop on “TRENDS FOR ALGORITHMIC EXPERIMENTATION AND PROTOTYPING” under the aegis of DBT Star College Program from May 28, 2018 to June 15, 2018 at DDUC. Its aim was to explore the AVR microcontrollers and its interfacing as much as possible in 15 days and to give students a platform to learn the basics of programming an AVR microcontroller which is used in every field from tea vending machines to home office automation.

Embedded System is a strong area of study having application in almost every sector. With a microcontroller as its heart, it creates several opportunities as well as challenging tasks. Automobile, Aerospace, Medical Instrumentation, Banking, Mining, Industry Automation, Personal Computing, Telecommunication, Space Research, Agriculture/Farming, Defense are a few application areas of embedded systems. Embedded systems and Robotics industry is expected to grow by 60% by 2020 in India

Prototyping is basically a test bed for demonstration, providing the viability of the idea and illustrating conceivable applications. Prototyping is also essential as a development environment for rigorous experimentation and testing. Thus the workshop was basically a platform for students to develop various algorithms, physically design, experiment and debug the circuits for a theoretical design i.e. create and test a prototype.

In this workshop the AVR studio IDE was used to create prototypes on ATMega32 Microcontroller in the embedded system environment. Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) such as AVR Studio are software applications that provide the interface platform to the engineer to build the application on the microcontroller to do the desired task at hand. A total of 31 students including 3 from Hansraj College and 3 from Maharaja Agrasen College and 1 from Army Public School Gorakhpur participated in this workshop. Mr. Nitin Sharma and Mr. Ravi were the resource persons from i3indiy Technologies, the Industry Academia Partner along with Dr. Manoj Saxena, Dr Poonam Kasturi, Ms Neha, Mr Naveen and Mr Ajit extending their help to the students during the lab sessions.

The objective of the workshop was to bridge the gap between the industry requirements and college studies using complete practical approach. It was a 90 hours course with 6 hours per day. The basics of embedded software that includes embedded c, basic concepts of AVR microcontroller, Hardware assembling, interfacing of various devices with AVR microcontroller were covered. It was an Industry Oriented Training Program that covered Basic as well as Advance aspects through 44 Practicals, 23 Minor Projects and 5 Major Projects. The workshop started with the introduction to embedded systems, microcontrollers, GPIO programming, interfacing LEDs, SSDs, LCDs, Motors etc to intermediate complicated devices like Stepper motor, 4x4 keypads, and introduced the day to day technologies and protocols which surround us.

Practicals covered during the workshop were from basic such as LED blinking, LED matrix interfacing, seven segment display, LCD display to advance concepts like controlling of ac appliances remotely using relays. Various minor Projects including temperature sensor, white line sensor rovor, Touchscreen control robot, stop watch, touch screen control, keypad controlled rovor, digital piano and many more were covered. Major projects included ATM Prototype, remote controlled wireless robot, Digital clock, RFID based door lock system, , Visitor counter, PC controlled ROBOT movement and many more. The interconnection of wireless devices using internet and embedded programming was also covered. The event was executed in groups among which several healthy competitions were conducted.

More than 60 assignments were performed by the students. Students were able to get theoretical as well as practical knowledge with many new practicals and projects being done every day during workshop.

June 2018

Two Days Hands-on Workshop on “Immuno-techniques, based on Antigen-Antibody (Ag-Ab) Interactions” organized by Department of Zoology, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College under the aegis of DBT Star College Scheme

A two-day Hands-on Workshop on “Immuno-techniques, based on Antigen-Antibody (Ag-Ab) Interactions” was organized for students of B.Sc. (Hons.) Zoology and B.Sc. Life Sciences of our own college by Department of Zoology, Deen Dayal Uapdhyaya College (university of Delhi) under the aegis of DBT Star College Scheme on June 13-14, 2018. A total of 20 students were registered for the workshop out of which 16 students could attend the same. The workshop was intended to provide a hands-on experience to students about immunological techniques being taught in theory but not practically, due to lack of funds. These techniques involved were, immunoelectrophoresis, double immunodiffusion (ouchterlony method), single radial immunodiffusion (mancini’s method) and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay, ELISA (sandwich method). These techniques are widely used in research and diagnosis and hence provide a good learning exposure to undergraduate students. The workshop started on June 13, 2018 with a brief introduction about antigen, antibody and their interactions. Dr. Anita Gulati from Department of Zoology introduced these techniques briefly to students. Firstly, immunoelectrophoresis was performed by students followed by double immunodiffusion. On June 14, 2018, radial immunodiffusion and sandwich ELISA were performed by students. At last, students submitted their feedback wherein they expressed their willingness for many more such workshops in future. This workshop was convened by Dr. Anita Gulati and Dr Renu Solanki from Department of Zoology who also acted as resource persons along with Dr. Sudhir Verma, Dr. Krishna Bansal and Dr. Kamlesh Kumari.

Some glimpses of the workshop

Clockwise: Dr. Anita Gulati, introducing the immune-techniques to students, students performing ELISA, Group photograph of the students with Dr. S.K. Garg (Principal) and other dignitaries, students performing immunodiffusion.

Summer project on “Analysis of Microflora in Polluted water of South West and North West Part of Delhi” was under taken from 29 July 2018 to 15 June 2018

A summer project on “Analysis of Microflora in Polluted water of South West and North West Part of Delhi” was under taken from 15 June 2018 to 29 July 2018. A total of 8 students of B.Sc. (H) Botany II Year have participated in the project work under the guidance of Dr. S.N. Tripathi and Dr. Sandeep Kumar. The objectives of the study was to make an inventory of microflora commonly present in the polluted water bodies by proper visualization and identification according to the recent identification approaches available in literature. Sampling was done from different polluted water bodies of South-west (Dwarka) and North-west parts of Delhi in the month of June 2018. Samples were collected manually following standard protocols. Collected samples were placed in small vials added with 3% formalin to preserve the biotic components of sample and were labeled according to the sites and stored at room temperature in laboratory for further micro-flora analysis.

Preparation of slides and Photomicrographs: Temporary slides were prepared by diluting the sample with distilled water in ratio of 1:9. Slides were prepared using glycerin as a mounting material and observed under microscope. Slides were observed under 40X and Photography was done by Optima, Dewinter DEW/070 photomicroscope.

Results: The following organisms were recorded from the above mentioned sites:

1)Diatoms (Bacillariophyta): are one of the most distinctive and successful groups of unicellular algae, occurring throughout the world in ma¬rine, brackish and fresh waters, as well as in damp subaerial habitats.

Identifying diatoms: Identification sought to put the correct name to a specimen. It does not depend upon any knowledge of the evolutionary or systematic relationships of the species; therefore the taxa selected by choosing a particular character state are not necessarily closely related. Correct identification in this study rests on the unique combination of character states of the species in question. Conventionally diatoms are identified based on the morphology of the siliceous wall (frustule) although protoplast features can also be used.

Blue Green Algae: Cyanobacteria and eukaryotic algae are an evolutionarily diverse assemblage that can adapt to microhabitats through varying growth rates and variable genomes that can potentially express different genes under different environmental conditions. The basic method of algal species identification employed in present study was morphological which uses various features observed under a microscope.

Green Algae: Algae are important aquatic organisms for understanding ecosystem processes, conservation, and water quality. The identification of algae was based on the morphological features observed under microscopes and their comparison with the literature available on the concerned species.

Overall the group wise identified species are as below:

Cyanophyceae: 04

Bacillariophyceae: 07

Fragilariophyceae: 02

Euglenophyceae: 03

Zygnematophyceae: 02

Chlorophyceae: 03

Discussion: Overall, among the studied sites Madhu Vihar and Mangolpuri have emerged as most diverse sites with abundant phytoplankton growth. These sites were considerably polluted and the water had a pH ranging from 7-8, which may be supporting to Diatoms growth substantially. Species of Fragilaria, Navicula, Oscillatoria, Euglena were commonly found in most of the sites which are indicative of pre- existing high nutrient status as well as indicator of organic pollution. This study has identified diverse organisms in the organically polluted water which could be further related with their role as ecological indicators and the survival of these species in such conditions points out their importance and function in the aquatic ecosystem. Moreover, extensive studies are warranted to identify and asses the ecological roles of microflora in polluted water bodies of Delhi-NCR.

July 2018

Hands-on Workshop in Mathematica/Excel/Tora held during July 12-13, 2018 and organized by Department of Mathematics

Department of Mathemtics of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College successfully organised a two days Hands-on workshop on Mathematica/Excel/Tora on 12th -13th July 2018, under the aegis of DBT Star College Scheme. Mathematica is a modern technical computing system used in many technical, scientific, engineering, mathematical, and computing fields. Excel is very beneficial for students. Students can learn by using excel how to convert raw data into meaningful information. TORA is mathematical software in the area of operations research which is very easy to use. It is used to solve the problem of Linear Programming, Transportation Model, Integer Programming, etc.

The goal of this program was to encourage the students of program courses to take mathematical practicals for improving their knowledge like calculus, diffential equations, linear algebra, statistics, optimization etc. The goal of this program is to give the basic knowledge of Mathematica, Excel and Tora which are used to solve mathematical and scientific problems. Participants had access to computing facilities with these softwares and had an opportunity to hands-on exercises with the same. Inaugural talk was delivered by Prof. Subhendu Ghosh, Head, Dept. of Biophysics, South Campus, University of Delhi. He motivated the participants to take up mathematics subject in higher studies and gain applied knowledge of mathematics. The first day of the program of had one session on tora was taken by Ms. Rashmi Gupta and two sessions on excel, taken care by Mr. Tarachand Prajapati. Second day of the program had Three sessions on mathematica which included calculus, differential equations and multivariate calculus. The resource person for second day was Dr. Dinesh Kumar. There were total 22 participants (from different colleges of University of Delhi and other universities) in the workshop.

August 2018

Five days hands on inter-college workshop on “Basic Principles of Recombinant DNA Technology & Metagenomics” was organized by Department of Zoology under the aegis of DBT Star College Program from August 28 to September 1, 2018

A five days hands on inter-college workshop on “Basic Principles of Recombinant DNA Technology & Metagenomics” was organized by Department of Zoology under the aegis of DBT Star College Program from August 28 to September 1, 2018 in Laboratory No. 206 for undergraduate life science students of final year. The workshop was attended by following 31 students of B.Sc (Hons.) Zoology and B.Sc (P) Life Sciences from different colleges. The workshop commenced with a brief introduction of all the resource persons and an outline of the workshop by Dr. Shailly Anand followed by a talk by Dr. Sudhir Verma showcasing the various activities organized by Dept. of Zoology under the aegis of DBT Star College Program and our goals underlying them.

The following experiments were conducted during the five days of the workshop:

To bridge the gap between the theoretical concepts & practical aspects, the workshop was planned in a manner to incorporate lecture sessions on the following topics:

Lecture 1: Basic principle underlying the process of DNA isolation

Lecture 2: An Introduction to Restriction Enzymes and Restriction Digestion as techniques of Gene Manipulation

Lecture 3: The Concept of Restriction maps using Problem Based Learning (PBL) pedagogy

Lecture 4: An Introduction to Ligation as a technique of Gene Manipulation

Lecture 5: An overview of various Transformation Techniques and Selection Strategies used in Biotechnology

On request of students, a session on media preparation and sterilization was also incorporated during the workshop. Students were provided with a manual of “Stepwise Guide to Experiments” in which they recorded all the observations. Enclosed with this report is a copy of the student workbook showing the details of the experiments and observations documented by the students during the workshop. On Day 4 (31st August, 2018), Prof. Rup Lal from Molecular Biology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Delhi also visited to interact with the students. He delivered a talk on “Microbiome: The Vision for Future” at 11:30 a.m. in Room No. 509. The lecture was attended by nearly 110 students of B. Sc (Hons.) Zoology & B. Sc (P) Life Sciences and 12 faculty members in addition to the participants of the workshop. The workshop concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr. Shailly Anand & Dr. Renu Solanki (Convenors, Workshop) and a feedback from all the participants. The students also shared their experience during the five days and wished to participate in many more such workshops in future too. As commented by the students, the workshop was well organized, informative and helped them enhance their skill. The efforts of all the resource persons was appreciated by the participants.

One-day workshop on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) organized by Department of Chemistry under the aegis of DBT Star college Scheme on 28 August, 2018

Department of Chemistry under the aegis of DBT Star college Scheme organized a one-day workshop on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) on 28 August, 2018. Forty students from B.Sc. (H) Chemistry and B.Sc. (Prog.) Physical Sciences of DDUC along with several faculty members of our college and other colleges of University of Delhi participated in the workshop. The workshop started with the welcome address by Dr. S. K. Garg, Principal of the college followed by a brief introduction of the theme of the workshop by Dr. Vinod Kumar, the convener of the workshop. The workshop had two talks in the morning session and two in the afternoon session. The morning session was chaired by Dr. Shashi Saxena, DDUC and the afternoon one by Dr. K. K. Jha, DDUC.

Resource Persons

Dr. Rekha Chaturvedi is Intellectual Property Rights Chair (Professor) at Cluster Innovation Centre, University of Delhi. Dr. Chaturvedi delivered the inaugural lecture on Intellectual Property and its Management. She talked about the importance of intellectual property and explained about its different types such as patents, copyrights, trademarks, industrial designs etc.

Dr. Arul George Scaria is an Assistant Professor of Law at National Law University, Delhi and Co Director of the Centre for Innovation Intellectual Property and Competition (CIIPC). He emphasized on the importance of copyrights and what are their exceptions. He also discussed few real life cases which added to the importance of copyrights.

Dr. Rashmi Tandon is an Intellectual Property Rights expert. She gave an insight about the trademarks and their importance. She also discussed the procedure for filing trademark.

The Inaugural lecture for the academic year 2018-19 of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya college’s chemical society “Covalence” was organized on 20th September, 2018 at 3:00 pm in the college auditorium under the aegis of DBT star college scheme. Professor Ashok Kumar Bakhshi, Vice Chancellor of PDM University, Bahadurgarh, Haryana was invited to deliver the lecture. After the lighting of the lamp and the welcome address by the Principal of the college, Prof. Bakhshi gave the lecture on the topic “How to excel in chemistry in 21st century: some useful tips”. In his lecture he emphasized on developing analytical thinking over mugging up the course. He also discussed about the role of the growing technology and its importance for excelling in future. A number of students of the college along with the faculty members attended the lecture and found it to be very interesting and informative. After the lecture a group photograph was taken and thereafter light refreshments were served.

Workshop on Numerical Methods and its Applications in various Allied Fields of Sciences with Mathematica organized during 17th to 22nd Sept. 2018 jointly by Department of Mathematics and Electronics

About the Workshop

The purpose of this workshop was to bring together the students interested to explore the subject of “NUMERICAL METHODS AND ITS APPLICATIONS WITH MATHEMATICA”. The workshop helped the students to find the best possible solutions of Equations, System of Equations, Differential Equations and different types of related problems. Students learnt through MATHEMATICA how to write codes of different methods, discussed the existing errors to find best possible solutions. Discussion on various types of errors enhanced the knowledge of sources of errors and how to manage them. Theoretical sessions were followed by hand-on sessions with case studies covering the applications in various allied fields of sciences. Knowledge of the methods can be utilized at any platform to solve their own research problems in future and problems at their workplace.

On the first day of the workshop Dr. Nilam discussed Numerical Methods and Errors, error propagation and Computer Arithmetic. Introduction to Mathematica and related problems were discussed in Hands on sessions. Next day Dr. Vivek covered the topics related to Numerical Methods and Solutions of Equations. Further Algorithms of various iterative methods and absolute relative approximate errors were discussed. Coding of di related Numerical Me with related problems in Hands on sessions. Third day Dr. Vivek discussed Numerical Methods in Linear Algebra. Solving system of linear equations and relative approximate errors were taken up. Program coding in Mathematica was done with related problems in Hands on sessions. Dr. Mani discussed Numerical Methods and Integration., Gaussian Quadrature rule on day four. Related problems were taken up in Hands on sessions. On day Five Dr. Nilam discussed Differential equations and Numerical methods used to solve them, followed by Hand on sessions on related problems.Mr. Sudhakar Yadav, Mr. Chhatra Pal, Ms. Kanica Goel and Mr. Abhishek Kumar guided students in Hands-on sessions along with the resource persons. Students from different colleges - Miranda House, Motilal Nehru College, Ramanujan College, Kalindi College, Maitreyi college, ARSD college and DDUC participated in the workshop.

Career Counselling Session for Life Science Students on September 26, 2018 by Genesis Academy Team

Trip of B.Sc. (H) Botany III and V semester And B.Sc. Life Sciences V th semester to the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology CSIR-IGIB Outreach 2018 held on 27th September 2018 under DBT Star Program

About this Workshop : Knowledge, imagination and scientific methods are propelling our world to new heights and have made legacy hardware (circuit boards) obsolete. FPGAs are the new innovation when it comes to designing, integrating, and simulating systems. With unprecedented logic density increase and a host of other features, FPGAs are a compelling proposition for almost any type of design. Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are semiconductor devices that are based around a matrix of configurable logic blocks (CLBs) connected via programmable interconnects. They can be reprogrammed to desired application after manufacturing and thus enable higher degrees of flexibility, faster time-to-market, and lower overall costs. They find applications in areas such as industrial imaging, surveillance, automation, Aerospace and Communications, etc. Hardware Descriptive Language (HDL) or as a schematic design is used to design the behavior of FPGA. HDL form is more suited to work with large structures as it's possible to specify them functionally rather than having to draw every component. However, schematic entry allows for easier visualization of a design.

CoreEL : CoreEL Technologies is a one stop source for advanced tools, solutions, training and consultancy in VLSI and Embedded System technologies. They have been strategic partners to the Indian academia for over a decade now. Their area spans Product Sales & Support, consultancy, FDP and Student Programs across multiple disciplines. CoreEL Technologies is the Sole Authorized Partner of Xilinx University Program (XUP) in India.

Skills Gained After Completing this Workshop : Participants will have hands on experience on NEXYS 4DDR FPGA Boards from Xilinx and will be able to:

•Describe the coding techniques to configure the FPGA for an application

•Describe the general Artix-7 All Programmable FPGA architecture

•Understand the ISE and Vivado design flow

•Create and debug HDL designs

•Configure FPGA and verify hardware operation

•Configure FPGA architecture features, such as Clock Manager, using the Architecture Wizard

Knowledge, imagination and scientific methods are propelling our world to newer heights and have made legacy hardware (circuit boards) obsolete. FPGAs are the new innovation when it comes to designing, integrating, and simulating systems. With unprecedented logic density increase and a host of other features, FPGAs are a compelling proposition for almost any type of design. Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are semiconductor devices that are based around a matrix of configurable logic blocks (CLBs) connected via programmable interconnects. They can be reconfigured to desired application after manufacturing and thus enable higher degrees of flexibility, faster time-to-market, and lower overall costs. They find applications in areas such as industrial imaging, surveillance, automation, Aerospace and Communications, etc. Hardware Descriptive Language (HDL) or a schematic design is used to design the behavior of FPGA. HDL form is more suited to work with large structures as it's possible to specify them functionally rather than having to draw every component. However, schematic entry allows for easier visualization of a design.

The workshop was conducted in collaboration with CoreEL Technologies, a company that is a one stop source for advanced tools, solutions, training and consultancy in VLSI and Embedded System technologies. They have been strategic partners to the Indian academia for over a decade now. Their area spans Product Sales & Support, consultancy, FDP and Student Programs across multiple disciplines. CoreEL Technologies is the Sole Authorized Partner of Xilinx University Program (XUP) in India. 52 participants were there in total, out of which 39 were from other colleges like Venkateshwar College, Atma Ram Sanatan Dharm College, Acharya Narendra Dev College, Keshav College, Rajdhani College, Aurbindo College, Hansraj College, Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences and Guru Govind Singh Inder Prastha University. Seven faculty members from other colleges also participated in the workshop. Digital Circuits like adders, subtractors, multipliers, counters and interfacing of LEDs, 7Segment displays and switches were implemented on Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA using both VHDL and Verilog coding languages. The experiments were implemented in ISE as well as Vivado design flow. Participants had hands-on experience on NEXYS 4DDR FPGA Boards from Xilinx and were able to describe the coding techniques required to configure the FPGA for an application, create and debug HDL designs, perform simulation verification, configure FPGA and verify hardware operation, configure FPGA architecture features, such as Clock Manager, using the Architecture Wizard, Pinpoint design bottlenecks using the reports, Utilize synthesis options to improve performance and use Logic Analyzer to perform on-chip verification.

Prelims of National Level Event IoT Challenge 2019 and Two-Days workshop on Internet of Things (IoT) on October 11-12, 2018 under the aegis of DBT Star College Program, Electronics

Department of Zoology under the aegis of DBT Star College Scheme and in association with Department of Zoology (University of Delhi), Ramjas College (University of Delhi) and Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Outreach Program entitled “Lectures by INSA Fellows/Young Scientists/Teacher Awardees to Young Students and Teachers of Schools and Colleges in Remote Areas” organized Bani School Innovation Camp III (BaSIC III) Program Conducted at Govt. Senior Secondary School, Bani, Himachal Pradesh (October 15th, 2018)

Under INSA outreach program,"Lectures by INSA Fellows/Young scientists/teacher awardees to young students and teachers of schools and colleges in the remote/rural areas”, in which INSA-fellows can deliver lecture to motivate and ignite young minds, Prof. Rup Lal, Fellow- INSA, Department of Zoology, University of Delhi selected Govt. Senior Secondary School (GSSS), Bani located in the Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh. In the year 2016, Prof. Lal and his PhD students collaborated with teachers and undergraduate students from Ramjas College (DBT star college project) and together adopted GSSS, Bani, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh on December 23, 2016 and organized Bani School Innovation Camp I (BaSIC, 2016) on December 23rd -24th 2016. BaSIC II was then organised on March 7th, 2018. Both the programs were a major success as seen from the feedback obtained. In continuation of these efforts, a third camp was organized on October 15th, 2018 and was called Bani School Innovation Camp III or BaSIC III. The program was organized with an aim of uplifting the rural areas through propagation of scientific thoughts, promotion of student-teacher interactions and development of communication skills.

This school was established in 1905 to impart education upto the 4th standard. In 1951, this school was upgraded to High School level and in the year 1990 became Senior Secondary School (co-educational) imparting education to students from the villages located in and around Bani. Over the years many students who passed out from this school have attained very good positions in India and globally. Prof. Rup Lal himself passed his matriculation from this school in the year 1969. During BaSIC- 2016, Prof. Rup Lal targeted and inspired students of classes IX-XII through his lecture. His interactions with students of classes VI-VIII and the confident and fearless attitude of these students forced him to organize the camp again for students of classes VI-VIII during BaSIC II. Hence, this time in order to motivate the students of all the classes of the school i.e. VI-XII, a plan to organize BaSIC III was submitted to INSA under the INSA outreach program that was sanctioned.

Under this program an innovation camp was conducted at GSSS Bani on October 15th, 2018. The program was given the name Bani School Innovation Camp III also called as BaSIC III. The program was discussed by Dr. Sukanya Lal, Coordinator of DBT Star College Project, Ramjas College and Dr. Shailly Anand, Coordinator BaSIC III, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College of University of Delhi. They were accompanied by a team of teachers from the Department of Zoology of Ramjas College (1 in number), and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College (5), University of Delhi. Additionally Ph.D students from the Department of Zoology (8), undergraduate students from the Ramjas College (7) and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College (21) and masters students (4) from Department of Zoology, University of Delhi also accompanied the group. Under the program, many different teaching modules were organized that covered the different areas of science and technology and revolved around the central theme of propagation of scientific thoughts among students. The sessions and modules were designed to not only to raise interest of school children in the field of science but also the latest technologies that make our lives better such as emails and e-banking and fund transfers. The students were not only taught theoretically but were given hands-on training and demonstrations to develop their interest. Apart from these, the camp also included sessions for the parents of the school children to help bridge the communication gap between parents and children and to address the common issues while highlighting the roles and responsibilities of both the children and their parents.

The main objectives of BaSIC III camp organized under INSA outreach program were:

1.Propagation of scientific thoughts.

2.Promoting gender equality in rural areas.

3.Development of personality and communication skills.

4.Guiding the parents.

5.Promotion of extra-curricular (cultural and sports) activities.

Science Foundation Committee, DBT Star College Program Committee and NASI Delhi Chapter jointly organized Outreach Program for Class X students of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sector 12, Dwarka from October 24-29, 2018.

Invited talk by Dr. Rashmi Verma Organised by Dept. of Mathematics, Under DBT Star College Program

An Invited Talk entitled “Congruence relation and It’s Applications” was organised by Department of Mathematics (under DBT star college scheme) on Feb 1, 2019 at 11 am in computer centre of the college. The talk was delivered by Dr. Rashmi Verma, Department of Mathematics, Mata Sundri College for Women, DU (Recipient of Shri Suresh Bhatia Memorial Gold Medal, 1999, Recipient of Rai Bahadur Brijmohan Lal Saheb Memorial Gold Medal, 1999, Recipient of Dr. J.N. Mitra Memorial Prize, 1999). She was introduced by Dr. Rashmi Gupta. In her talk she discussed about congruence relation, its various properties and applications in coding theory and cryptography. Sixty students were present in the lecture. In the end Dr. Manoj Saxena (Coordinator, DBT Star college Program) thanked Dr. Verma with a sapling.

On February 14, 2019 - A technical lecture on “Watching birds – A short introduction on how to document avifauna” by Ms. Misha Bansal, State Coordinator, Delhi-NCR, GBBC-2019 Project Fellow, Centre for Ecology Development and Research was organized.

On February 21, 2019 - Workshops on “Tora”was organised for B. Sc. Physical Science students. These workshops were conducted to encourage the students of program courses for improving their knowledge to solve different linear programming problems using the software Tora.

On February 22, 2019 - Mini Symposium in mathematics was organised with an objective to bring the experts from different areas of mathematics on a common platform. The main speakers were Prof. Arvind Ayyer from IISc, Bengaluru; Prof. Mahan Mj from TIFR, Mumbai; Prof. Suresh Chandra from IIT Delhi; Prof. Shanta Laishram from ISI, Delhi.

Fifth Workshop on Recent Trends in Semiconductor Devices and Technology Under the Aegis of DBT Star College Scheme (Electronics)

Theme of the Workshop - The main theme of the workshop is to provide a forum for undergraduate and post graduate students to interact with the technologists carrying out leading edge research and development in the area of process and device technology. The workshop is organized on the success of first, second, third and fourth national workshop held in Feb 2010, Sept 2010, January 2013 and September 2014 respectively which witnessed gathering of over 100 delegates from all over India. This time we have invited speakers from Defense labs. Of Govt of India and leading research and academic institutions, who will present new ideas about device and process physics, demonstrate applications to leading edge technologies, and show new models for devices. The aim of the workshop is to inspire young students to take up research and development as a career in the core and thrust areas of R&D as proposed by DRDO.

On February 23, 2019 - An industrial trip was organised by the department of Chemistry to Mother Dairy Plant, Patparganj, New Delhi. A group of 39 students and 3 teachers visited the plant. Students and teachers were made aware of the company products, its operations and the production process.

On February 26, 2019 - Wildlife Talk on “Birds of Delhi, behavior and conservation: A step to connect students with nature” by Mr. Kaustubh Srikanth, Programme Officer- Eco Trails, WWF-India was organized.

On February 28, 2019 - Workshop on “Tora” was organised for B. Sc. Physical Science students. These workshops were conducted to encourage the students of program courses for improving their knowledge to solve different linear programming problems using the software Tora.

On March 06, 2019 - Workshop on “Numerical Methods with MATHEMATICA” for B.Sc (Mathematical Science) students was organised to encourage them to solve problems using MATHEMATICA which is a modern technical computing tool used in many scientific and engineering fields.

On March 07, 2019 - Workshop on “Tora” was organised for B. Sc. Physical Science students. These workshops were conducted to encourage the students of program courses for improving their knowledge to solve different linear programming problems using the software Tora.

On March 08, 2019 - Workshop on “Numerical Methods with MATHEMATICA” for B.Sc (Mathematical Science) students was organised to encourage them to solve problems using MATHEMATICA which is a modern technical computing tool used in many scientific and engineering fields.

On March 11-12, 2019 - The Science Festival was organized under the aegis of DBT Star College Program and was financially supported by IEEE Electron Device Society Delhi Chapter and National Academy of Science India (NASI) -Delhi Chapter. Companies like Jaisbo, SILVACO, Cognitive Design technologies, AGMATEL, Keysight Technologies, Dewinter, Silicom Electronics Pvt. Ltd., Binary Semantics and i3Indya Technologies exhibited their products during the science exhibition.

On March 11 2019, the opening remarks were given by Professor Ajoy Ghatak, Chairperson-NASI Delhi Chapter and the inaugural address was delivered Professor R K Kohli, FNA, FASc, FASc, FNAAS, JC Bose National Fellow, Vice-Chancellor, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda. On March 12, 2019, the keynote address was delivered by Dr. Amulya Kumar Panda, Director, National Institute of Immunology.

81 posters, projects and models were presented by over 160 participants from 22 different institutions like Punjabi University (Patiala); Bal Bharti Public School, (Dwarka) and Colleges of University of Delhi participated in various events organised during the festival. The list of competitions included Science quiz, debate, graffiti, and nukkad natak. A hands-on-workshop on “Bird Nest making for assisting the conservation of House Sparrow” and movie screening about the life of great Indian mathematician ‘Srinivasa Ramanujan’ were the highlight of the two-day event.

On March 12, 2019, Keysight technologies conducted a workshop for advance learners on Keysight Dreamcatcher Kit ME1000 with Fieldfox. Binary Semantics conducted an FDP and a Quiz on STEM Education for the audience.

A panel discussion on the topic “Science Communication” was organized, the speakers were Prof. Sreenivasa Rao Kottapalli, Head, Department of Botany, University of Delhi; Professor Vasudha Bhatnagar, Head, Department of Computer Science, University of Delhi and Professor Mridula Gupta, Department of Electronic Science, University of Delhi South Campus.

Eight students of Class IX of Maxfort School, Dwarka and five students of Bal Bharati Public School visited the Science Exhibition and participated in various events. 20 students from NGO UPAY (Underprivileged Advancement by Youth) aged between 8-12 years visited the exhibition.

The program culminated with a cultural program in which students performed traditional folk dance of North-Eastern states, guitar performance, performance of RAAGA (dance society of the college) and many more.

Software (MAPLE) demonstration for students and teachers of Mathematics department was organised with resource persons from Binary semantics Ltd. A mathematics quiz was also organised in which DDUC team won the free licences and a trophy.

On March 17, 2019 - Two teams from the college which were selected during zonal rounds of IoT (Internet of Thinga) Challenge’2019 (pan India) participated in the final round held at Radiance 2019, IIT Bombay. Project: “Agritech - Smart Irrigation System” was presented by team1 (Praveen K Chaturvedi, Abhishek Soni - B.Sc. (H) Electronics III yr and Ashutosh Mishra, Shivam K Singh - B.Sc. (H) Electronics I yr). This project won 3rd prize from out of the 50 teams participating from all over the country. Second team ( Ajay Joshi, Sahil, Yashdeep Rana - B.Sc. (H) Electronics III yr and Rajat Jindal - B.Sc. (H) Electronics I yr) presented project “SMHA- Self Maintained Home Automation”.

On March 18, 2019 - An educational visit to “Institute of Himalayan Bio-resource Technology (CSIR-IHBT)”, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh was organized wherein students visited various research and infrastructural facilities and interacted with scientists and research scholars. (Convener: Dr. Sudhir Verma) [No. of Beneficiaries: 31]

On March 22, 2019 - Intensive Undergraduate Workshop on Analysis – A three day workshop was organised for the students of B.Sc. Mathematics of University of Delhi and other universities. Resource persons – Dr. Sushil Gorai from IISER Kolkata, Dr. Diganta Borah from IISER Pune , Dr. Sanjay Kumar, Dr. Dinesh Kumar. Each day there were two lectures and two tutorial sessions which helped students learn the basic concepts and question solving techniques. Total 54 students participated in this workshop of which 27 students were from different colleges and 27 were from our college.

On March 29, 2019 - “Brain Awareness Program” was organized in association with National Brain Research Centre (NBRC), Manesar, Haryana to create awareness about Brain structure and function and related disorders. The events included: A popular lecture by Dr. Dipanjan Roy (Scientist, NBRC) on Brain Science: Foundations and Fundamentals, a rangoli making competition on “Artistic expression of Brain and its functions” and a poster making competition on “Public awareness of brain related disorders”. (Event Convenor: Dr. Sudhir Verma) [No. of Beneficiaries: 70]

APRIL 2020

SPECIAL WEBINAR on BASIC QUANTUM MECHANICS by Professor Ajoy Ghatak on April 06, 2020